Train Ride to Crazy Town
Chloride, Arizona
2025

When I was in the hospital at the Mayo Clinic for six months, about half that time I was delirious and often suffered very realistic hallucinations. Or  in short I called it spending time in Crazy Town. Some of the scenes I experienced seemed like normal situations until I thought about them more and they became anything but normal. This photo is a benign example–it looks like an old gas station (and likely was) but the gas pumps are for three different brands of gasoline. And of course there’s the railroad running so close to the pumps you’d be hard pressed to drive a car on the front side of the pumps. Knowing that Chloride, Arizona contains a lot of odd collections of antiques makes this scene seem understandable and not particularly weird to me. That was not the same for some of my adventures in Crazy Town. One instance of my delusional state even involved being on a railroad of sorts and that train ride was not benign or pleasant at all. My advice: stay away from Crazy Time.

Sitting Places #30
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Another good title for this image might be “A Train Track Runs Through It,” at least if you’re a Norman Maclean fan, or a fan of fly fishing, or of Brad Pitt movies.

Sitting Places #29
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Pull your moccasins off and stay awhile.

Sitting Places #28
Chloride, Arizona
2025

For all it’s simple, old-time presentation, note the satellite dish on the back end of the roof; proving I suppose that rusticity can only take you so far these days.

Sitting Places #27
Chloride, Arizona
2025

It ain’t much, but it’s home.

Busy Day on Main Street
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Save a pickup truck or passing by while we were there, the Fashion Queen and I were the only ones on Chloride’s Main Street this February morning.

Small Town Food Pantry
Chloride, Arizona
2025

This photo was taken back in January, before my “troubles” began. I’ll probably be posting some older photos (but none that have been posted before) for a while until I can get back into the swing of things photographically.

Proof of Life
Bozeman, Montana
2025
(Photo by Connie Blackwood)

Some of you may be wondering why I quit posting POTDs back in April. One obvious explanation would be that I had kicked the bucket unexpectedly. If you thought that, you were close to being right. I went to Mayo Cinic in Rochester, MN for a two day routine heart checkup. I ended up being admitted to the hospital and staying there for 179 days plus a couple weeks  as an outpatient. During that 6+ months I had three open-heart surgeries, two heart attacks and a minor stroke. The last surgery was to get a heart transplant. This photo of me was taken just a few days ago after returning home. I’ve recovered considerably since earlier in the summer when I weighed some 125 pounds or so, looking more like this:

That’s me on the left. 🙂 On the right is Lily a service dog trained to entertain patients. I still have a lot of rehab left to do but notice small improvements almost daily.

Anyway, that’s my story (the short version). I’m not sure when I’ll be in a position to start regular POTDs again, but I’m hoping to once the dust settles around here. So stay tuned.

Saddle Sore
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Ghost Town Spirits #2
Chloride, Arizona
2025

Make that spirits light, since it’s just root beer and sarsaparilla.